A couple of months ago, the Washington Post ran an article by Michael Chorost, who has written a book about his experience with a cochlear implant. I meant to link it at the time, but got it lost on a different computer. The book is titled, Rebuilt, wi…

That first CSDF link for babies seems to have changed. It’s now:

http://www.csdf.k12.ca.us/outreach/resources/babies.htm

Parents who have already gone through this grinder must be allowed to tell their stories to the new parents.

The trick is sorting out stuff that works from the sheer mass of “information” out there to the new parents trying to find their way via naive Google search.

That still takes human recommendations like yours. Thanks!

- Linda Slovick
Linda.Slovick @ gmail.com

Then let’s do something to help that! Hearing parents need to be told as early as possible about ASL, about language acquisition, how lack of language effects their childs overall development and well being, how having an accessible language as early as possible will only help their child, never hurt them, in the long run!
My son is now going on 6 years old and has been at CSDF for over a year now. He has an implant that he no longer uses, it didnt do anything for him. If only I knew then what I know now!
And To Maryland,
gathering for a friendly picket, waving signs, and handing out flyers is so much fun? It shouldn’t have to be done in the first place! How can you say that when it gets to actually doing any of the work to make any of these things happen, they are nowhere to be found???? They are there, they are more then willing, and it is happening. There are free ASL classes at CSDF, there are plenty of community events that are happening all the time, there’s awesome outreach services at the schools, tours happening on any given day……what are you expecting that you think they are nowhere to be found????
Try this link….
http://www.csdf.k12.ca.us/resources/babies.htm
and this one…..
http://www.csdf.k12.ca.us/outreach/resources/

Hope this helps,
Danielle

> Yes, gathering for a picnic on a sunny day, waving
> signs, handing out flyers is lots of fun. But when it
> gets to actually doing any work to make any of these
> things happen, they are nowhere to be found.

I agree that the Deaf Community and parents of newly-discovered deaf kids have a LOT of trouble finding each other.

It would be helpful if audiologists had more information to share with parents of newly-discovered deaf kids, as audiologist so often shepherd the process of parent’s learning about their options.

An organization named IMPACT has been trying to address this issue.

Parents of newly-identified deaf children are now getting together, finding mentoring signing adults, and learning how to get needed support services.

See http://www.deafkids.org for general info and news of an upcoming conference in Sacramento, CA.

Hope this helps!

- Linda Slovick

I finally got my video of the DBC Milpitas rally edited. It’s at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDeARF6lSX8

There’s no audio :( but you can see you, Josh, and Abbie’s quote in sign in the middle… …and a bunch of cute kids.

We are hoping to have a transcript ready sometime later this week, but there is still a lot you can understand now.

I just tried to show what caught my eye during the afternoon. I hope you, Josh, Abbie, and your readers enjoy it!

- Linda Slovick

It’s doubtful that AG Bell will be able to survive the bad publicity generated by Seth Shulman’s new book which exposes Bell, without much doubt, as having been a patent thief. The only possible way that AG Bell will be able to survive this will be for them to change their name and then also embrace ASL and bilingualism.

FYI: Hearing aids amplify sound well into the 120 db range. Speaking as someone with a 110 db bilateral hearing loss since infancy, I speak with no deaf accent at all because hearing aids helped me very much and I could hear myself talk.

I agree with your point but just found the use of the “never” to be a bit narrow-minded.

Thank you for putting together facts in a way I hadn’t conceived of before. It’s been bugging me that there aren’t more Deaf-run organizations both to provide services and educate, but the truth is money talks - and A.G. Bell likes talking. I used to work for the NY Society f/t Deaf, now gone because of funding issues; fewer and fewer Deaf schools are available and hiring.. Where’s the money from to support even paying for interpreters to communicate with parents prior to their taking ASL classes? I mean, phew…

“AGBell is out there promoting and offering accessible speech resources to deaf children, as well as scholarships, research, and tools. So, where’s our ASL-equivalent advocacy that offers more than a rap on the knuckles for going with a CI? Developing that type of organization would be a better use of resources than standing in the grass outside an AG Bell convention.”

That says it all. AGBell is well funded, extremely wealthy, and offers free programs and materials and individual support for Deaf babies’ families. They will not support ASL as part of their agenda.

On the other hand, the various Deaf agencies that support ASL paired with available AVT training are poorly funded and depend largely on small grants, volunteers and vocal Deaf people. They are awakening, but are not able to support parents in what they need most: mentoring, hand-holding, demonstrations of parent involvement and training.

Well said, Li-Li’s Mom. I’d like to hear more discussion on this particular aspect.